Life Lessons From Beach Cricket

Some of the greatest lessons we can teach our kids can be done over a game of beach cricket according to one of New Zealand’s leading psychologists.

Manners, good sportsmanship, the ability to lose gracefully, and the perseverance to keep going when things get tough, are all skills we can pass onto our children, not through “parental lectures” but through a simple game of family sport, says Nigel Latta.

“When you play games with the kids you’re not just spending time with them, you’re teaching them how to be great people. Games are just games, they’re not lecturing you, they’re not nagging at you, they are just simply fun. It’s a great non-threatening way for us to pass on life lessons to our kids,” he says.

Latta, host of several primetime television shows including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Parenting, says often while playing games we are simultaneously showing our children the right way to behave. This, he says, can be as simple as role modelling good manners, teaching them how to politely stand in a queue, or how to cope with failure.

“Some kids aren’t good at losing and as soon as they can see they’re going to lose they start to pack up, and that’s not a good strategy for life or for coping when things aren’t going your way. Most parents, when they see that type of behaviour, start to think about ways they can help their children adjust their approach to things,” he says.

Parents have the opportunity to demonstrate better ways to behave, by continuing to play the game, regardless of the outcome.

“These family occasions can provide fantastic opportunities for you to teach the children by example or in a more casual and relaxed atmosphere. You are not sitting down and giving them a big lecture about life, you are just teaching them about being a good sport, and they’re out there having fun with you and are more inclined to actually listen!”

Latta says some of his happiest childhood memories include whitebaiting on the Waitaki River in Oamaru with his parents and he hopes to pass those experiences on to his own children.

The psychologist says one of the blessings of games like beach cricket is that you actually “don’t need any talent! And it’s cheap! A bit of wood and a ball, that’s all you need. The best stuff you can do with your kids costs nothing, you don’t have to take them to French Ski resorts,” he says.